1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of optical inspection systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for displaying imaged objects in greater than two dimensions.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional optical inspection systems, the data collected produces a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional object. For example, in optical inspection of printed circuit boards (PCBs), the data collected produces a two-dimensional image of the object surface. Although a number of techniques for reconstructing a three-dimensional image from multiple two-dimensional images known are in the computer vision industry, these techniques have not been applied to the printed circuit board optical inspection industry due to the difficulty in processing the specular reflections off shiny specular objects, such as solder joints and other components present or PCBs.
Therefore, in conventional optical inspection systems, a determination of whether an object is defective is made by manually analyzing the two-dimensional image of the object surface. The manual inspection process is labor-intensive and prone to errors. In many cases, two-dimensional images do not provide enough information to accurately assess whether or not an object is defective.
Therefore, what is needed is an optical inspection system capable of displaying an image of an object in greater than two dimensions to improve the accuracy in the detection of defective objects on printed circuit boards.